


Pre-disaster

by keitaiijima



Series: Junior High Moments [1]
Category: Battle Royale - All Media Types, Battle Royale - Takami Koushun
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-27
Updated: 2020-11-27
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:47:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27746950
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/keitaiijima/pseuds/keitaiijima
Summary: A few small moments of Shinji and Keita's friendship before they fell out. Keita is odd, but Shinji kind of likes it.Note: This is part of a non-linear series all set in the same universe but can also be definitely read independently.
Series: Junior High Moments [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2059632
Comments: 6
Kudos: 2





	Pre-disaster

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PimpedOutGreenEars](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PimpedOutGreenEars/gifts).



> I was requested to write this and it was a lot of fun. I've never really written from Shinji's POV before, nor have I written much of Shinji/Keita's friendship before Shinji started to hate him, so it was an interesting dynamic to explore. I hope you enjoy!

When he had started his first year at Shiroiwa Junior High, Shinji Mimura had not really known many of his classmates. He was lucky enough to be put in the same class as his best friend from elementary school, Yutaka Seto, but that was just about it. To be fair, it was all Shinji really needed. He liked having Yutaka close, to always have someone who could make him laugh and goof around with. In addition to this, Shinji made friends easily, so not knowing anyone else wasn’t a big problem. He had joined the school’s basketball team and met several cool people there; they became especially fascinated with the newcomer when he had saved a big game some time into the school year.  
Shinji and Yutaka had also made some friends in their class, 1-A. Some of their friends they made separately: Shinji was drawn to the intelligent but introverted Hiroki Sugimura, whilst Yutaka made friends with some of the nerdier boys, like Yuichiro Takiguchi. They did however also make a common friend, namely Keita Iijima.

Shinji and Keita was an odd match, really. Keita’s friendship with Yutaka made a little more sense, as they were both more on the geeky side, and shared a love for comic books and weird video games and what Shinji considered pretty out there conspiracy theories (he usually hoped Yutaka was just messing around when he presented him with ideas like this. The latest one was “What if there has already been an alien invasion and our brains are kept in little jars and artificially stimulated and our reality is nothing but one big hallucination?”). Somehow, Shinji still got along with the boy too; probably for the same reasons he got along so well with Yutaka. He liked being around people who could just chill out and tell stupid jokes, where it felt like he could disconnect from what a messed up world they were really living it. He got enough of those reminders when talking to his uncle, after all.

So the three of them would spend a lot of time together. Sometimes Hiroki joined in, but he was kept busy with his martial arts training and hanging out with his “best friend”, Takako. He had assured Shinji they weren’t dating, but Shinji wasn’t sure he believed that. He knew he wouldn’t have been able to have a hot friend like that without making a move on her, that was for sure.  
A typical night with just the three of them would involve a lot of pizza and even more video games. Shinji wasn’t the type to play games alone, but he had to admit he enjoyed kicking Yutaka and Keita’s butt in fighting games.

“Maan. You got some sick moves!” Keita would say, almost whining, and toss his controller to the side in defeat. Then they’d do rematches in other games, like Mario Kart, and Keita would declare that _this time_ he’d definitely beat Shinji; only to end up headbutting into a cow in Moo Moo Meadows for ten minutes, or falling off Rainbow Road until everyone else were already done with their rounds.  
All this while shoving down slice after slice of disgusting Hawaiian pizza. Keita would always insist they went 50/50 on the pizza, or get his own smaller one, just so he could enjoy those godforsaken pineapples. Shinji considered it an abomination, but Keita insisted this was his only source of vitamin intake. Which didn’t really make the situation any better.  
Still, Shinji enjoyed these lazy evenings with his friends as their first year in Junior High went. He especially enjoyed the part where he kept winning every game.

This was however also the year his uncle passed away. “Passed away” was probably the wrong way to phrase it; Shinji was sure something fishy had happened. His uncle’s death was classified an accident, but considering what Shinji knew about him and his anti-governmental activities, he had a hard time believing an easy explanation like that.  
He grieved the loss of his uncle, but he didn’t really talk to his friends about it. He couldn’t tell them about what his uncle had been involved in, and if he hoped to continue some of his legacy one day, he didn’t even want his closest friends to know just what his uncle had meant to him. Still, going through the grieving process became a little easier when he could hang out with the guys, beat them at games, and feel better about himself that way.

When they started their second year, their classes got mixed. Shinji was now placed in class B instead, though luckily still in the company of Yutaka, Keita, and Hiroki. They also got properly introduced to Shuya Nanahara and his best friend, Yoshitoki Kuninobu. Shinji knew of Shuya already, thanks to his reputation as somewhat of a star athlete. He learned that he was also kind-hearted and funny, if not a bit naïve. With the addition of those two, their little group had grown, and their second school year became even more entertaining than the first.

During that summer holiday, it got almost a bit _too_ entertaining for Shinji’s taste. He wanted to spend some time breaking through a firewall to an American website he needed to check out further (for once, this wasn’t porn related), but Keita declared they were going to have a race.  
“A _race_?” Yoshitoki asked, clearly sceptical. He, along with Hiroki, was often the one to question the logic behind Keita’s ideas. Shinji tended to just lean back and let things happen. Roll with the punches. Even if things ended in disaster, at least they were usually fun. He figured whatever this race was, it would be no difference.

“Yeah, that’s right!” Keita confirmed, seemingly oblivious to the concern in Yoshitoki’s voice. “I’ve drawn us all maps over the course with all the alternative routes, and no one knows which one is the quickest. So it’d be most fun if we all take different paths and sorta just see what works out!”  
“Wouldn’t _you_ know what’s fastest?” Hiroki questioned him, to which Keita just shrugged and said something about having just guessed most of the layout anyway. Shinji almost felt bad for the poor guy who ended up on his team.  
“So, Shinji, you’re with me!” Keita said, beaming.  
“Oh, okay,” Shinji nodded, though he threw Yutaka a longing look. Yutaka noticed, and sighed dramatically, before breaking into a smile.  
“I guess we can handle a couple of hours apart,” he whispered playfully.  
“Speak for yourself,” Shinji joked back.  
  
“Yutaka, you can be with Hiroki. And then Shuya and Nobu. All the best friends together!” Keita continued, handing out the maps. Shinji studied the one their team was keeping; it looked like some kind of children’s connect the dots drawing, which didn’t exactly help him believe in their victory.  
Keita moved closer to him when everyone started getting into their teams.  
“I was just lying to Hiroki,” he whispered. “I totally know the fastest way. We just gotta go through Sakaide.”  
“That doesn’t seem very fast,” Shinji whispered back. Not that he had any hopes of winning. Nor did he particularly care.  
“Trust me,” Keita insisted, before speaking up. “Okay! Everyone knows what to do?”  
“Yeah, but we’re not sure _why_ ,” Shuya chuckled, sticking the map into his back-pocket.  
“Eh. Just for fun! The winner get’s nothing. Ready, set… Go!” Keita called out enthusiastically, grabbing Shinji’s arm and sprinting down the street before most of them recognized what had happened.  
  


They did make their way to Sakaide, which still seemed like a big detour to Shinji, but he kept his mouth shut. This definitely meant more to Keita than to him (considering it meant nothing to him), so he just allowed him to take the lead. Which he would have never allowed if this was something that actually mattered.  
It took about an hour of wandering around the small city before Keita declared they were lost.  
  
“What do you mean, “lost”?” Shinji asked, reaching for the map and yanking it out of Keita’s hands. “Didn’t you make this map? And plan this whole route?”  
“Well, yeah,” Keita nodded. “But my map’s sorta hard to read. I knew I shouldn’t have made it when watching Beyblade. That show always steals all my attention!”  
Shinji agreed that he probably should have kept two eyes on what he was drawing, because it somehow made less sense the more he tried to study it. Still, he didn’t really get how Keita could struggle to find his way around when he planned this race just a day or two ago.  
_No,_ he corrected himself. _You know it’s always a mess when you’re not in charge. You couldn’t have expected anything else from Keita._

Looking up from the map, Shinji noticed an innocent-looking Keita bashing his eyelashes back at him. He was probably waiting for Shinji to tell him that it was okay and that he wasn’t mad about it.  
“Ops,” Keita tried, with a nervous smile. It was almost kind of endearing.  
“Don’t worry about it, man,” Shinji told him reassuringly, placing a hand on his shoulder. “It wouldn’t be a fun race if it was just a straight line, right?”  
“You’re saying… Getting lost is part of the fun?” Keita asked, his smile a bit more relaxed now.  
Shinji chuckled in response.  
“Yeah, sure. Guess that’s it.”  
“And you’re also saying… You don’t care about winning this?” Keita kept probing as they resumed to walking together. They had entered a small marketplace, where the smell from different food trucks hit them hard. Shinji immediately felt hungry. “You _, Shinji Mimura_ , don’t care about _winning_?”

Again, Shinji chuckled. He considered telling Keita he didn’t care about this because it was just a stupid game he invented, that it didn’t really matter, and that it really was only Keita who felt like it did. But he couldn’t bring himself to say that, even jokingly; not when Keita was so excited about it and had put… He didn’t want to say _so much_ effort into it, considering the look of the maps, but at least _some_ effort.  
“Yeah. Not this time,” Shinji said instead. They ended up getting to the finish line (which was Keita’s house, meaning everyone else had to wait outside for them) last, of course. Mostly because they ended up giving into the temptation of all the delicious smells, getting Yakitori grilled skewers and strolling the city without any help of the useless map. It might not have been the plan for the day, but it ended up being one of Shinji’s favourite moments with Keita.

* * *

  
In November, things peaked when Keita had been blessed with the genius idea that they should celebrate Thanksgiving. He had handed out hand-written invitations to his “Thanksgiving party” a few days earlier at school, which included a drawing of what he explained was a turkey. Shinji had guessed it was a penguin, which seemed close enough.

They were gathered at Keita’s house for the day of the party, which turned out to be a few weeks off from when Americans actually celebrated Thanksgiving. Keita mentioned something about doing it the Canadian way, but Shinji figured he just messed up the dates.  
“I’m pretty sure this is illegal somehow,” Yoshitoki remarked as the boys waited in the livingroom. Keita had disappeared into the kitchen, wearing his mom’s apron and a white headscarf to keep the hair out of his eyes. His words.  
“Grossly unpatriotic?” Hiroki chimed in, looking like he did have some concerns that the Government would storm in and bust them for partaking in an American tradition.  
“Who cares! Friends, food, maybe some unpatriotic music… That’s the best, right?” Shuya argued with a grin. Shinji gave him a quick smile.  
“Of course, the rocker doesn’t care about breaking the rules,” he commented teasingly.  
“Not everyone can be as innocent as you, Shinji,” Yutaka joked, nudging his friend playfully.

Just then, Keita stuck his head out from behind the kitchen door.  
“Ehhh… Guys?” he interrupted them, a sheepish smile on his face. Shinji recognized the expression from when they got lost during the summer race; he must have messed up somehow.  
“What?” he asked, preparing himself for some more amusement.  
“Has any of you… Killed anything before?” Keita continued. The other guys stared at him, clearly not having expected this question.  
“No…?” Yoshitoki replied, frowning slightly.  
“Why do you sound unsure?” Shuya jumped in, narrowing his eyes.  
“I’m not!” Yoshitoki said defensively. “I’m cautious of the question!”  
“It is a suspicious question,” Hiroki agreed.  
“No, I think Nobu is what’s suspicious,” Yutaka laughed, as both he and Shuya were pretending to study Yoshitoki intently now.

Shinji noticed Keita threw a few glances back into the kitchen, before a sequence of several loud bangs could be heard. Something appeared to have shattered.  
“Oh no,” Keita mumbled to himself.  
“What’s going on?” Shinji needed to know, before his curiosity would drive him crazy. He moved closer to the door, though Keita was still blocking the opening with his body.  
“Nothing,” Keita lied, shaking his head innocently. “Maybe… Maybe Hiroki can come to the kitchen? Yeah, you got all those martial art moves, right, dude? Sure you could take a turkey. Even if it’s pretty big…”  
“Wait, hold on,” Yutaka jumped up from the sofa too, a wide grin now appearing on his face. “Are you telling me… There’s an actual real, alive turkey in there?”  
_What would a fake, alive turkey be?_ Shinji wondered, but that was really the least of his questions now.  
“No,” Keita lied again, scratching the back of his ear. Another noise emerged from the kitchen now; it sounded like gobbling.  
  


“I’m not killing anything,” Hiroki was quick to say, remembering Keita’s original question. “I couldn’t.”  
“Sure you could! Your kick probably holds a lot of power!” Keita argued, in an attempt to encourage the other.  
“That’s _not_ what I meant. I mean… I _couldn’t_ ,” Hiroki continued to not really explain anything. “Maybe Shinji can do it.”  
“Ouch,” Shinji hummed, crossing his arms. He was still trying to get a peak of the turkey, but Keita just wouldn’t move. “Are you saying I’m cold enough to pull it off?”  
“That’s insane, Shinji’s an angel, he’d never kill anything,” Keita huffed. Although angel might be a stretch, Shinji appreciated the support. “Nobu?”  
  
Surprisingly enough, none of the boys were really up for slaughtering a 30 pound turkey in the middle of Keita’s kitchen. Just as well, because Keita did end up admitting his mother would probably be a little mad if she came home to blood and guts everywhere. They ended up ordering chicken instead. The turkey, which they named Dustin, was of course invited to eat with them.  
“You can’t give him that,” Hiroki said, horrified as Keita attempted to feed the turkey a wing. “That’s all sorts of wrong.”  
“Instead of judging each other,” Keita responded, petting the turkey. “Why don’t we do that thing where we say what we’re grateful for and stuff?”  
“And everyone can’t say me,” Shinji joked, leaning back onto his arms. He was seated on the floor, with Yutaka on his right, and Keita and… _Dustin_ … on his left.  
“Man, now I need to brainstorm all over again,” Yutaka laughed. “Nobu, you start!”

Yoshitoki said he was thankful for his friends and for everyone at the Orphanage who had given him a good upbringing all things considered. Shuya also went with the friends route, but added he was thankful in particular to those who had opened his eyes to new music genres and made him realize how music is what he was really passionate about. Hiroki was thankful for his friends (Shinji wondered how he could get away with _not_ mentioning that; he wanted to be original, after all), and his martial arts trainer.  
“If I say friends, is that lame now?” Yutaka asked when it was his turn.  
“Well, no one has said me in particular yet,” Shinji pointed out, trying to look disappointed.  
“I guess I’m thankful for Shinji….’s mom,” Yutaka laughed, dodging as Shinji threw a chicken bone in his direction.  
“Well, I’m thankful for Dustin,” Keita said happily. He attempted to place the turkey on his lap, but the bird refused to cooperate, making an awful lot of noise. “And two for one pizza deals.”  
  


“I guess it’s up to me to say I’m thankful for me,” Shinji sighed. How could both Yutaka and Keita have jumped over that one? Oh well. He considered saying he was thankful for his uncle too, but he didn’t want to go too sappy. Besides, Shuya and Yoshitoki didn’t even know his uncle had passed away, so he’d have to go into unnecessary explaining territory. None of his friends, even Yutaka, really knew why his uncle was so special, either. It was something he wouldn’t even know how to put into words. “And the basketball team, I guess,” he said instead.  
  
Although he didn’t say it out loud, Shinji found himself thinking he was pretty thankful for moments like this too, with his new and old friends. Especially when Dustin bit Keita’s finger and proceeded to chase Yutaka around the table.

* * *

Keita had the nerve to refer to their Thanksgiving as a “hit”, and suggested they’d have a Christmas guy’s night the weekend before real Christmas too.  
“Come on. More fried chicken! And we can do Secret Santa, so we don’t have to buy stuff for everyone but we all still get something. Cheap but fun!” he suggested cheerfully.  
“Yeah, that actually sounds pretty fun. Good idea, Iijima,” Shuya complimented him.  
“Will Dustin be there?” Shinji asked, getting the important questions out of the way quickly. He kind of missed that little bastard.  
“Oh. Shit. Bad news about him,” Keita’s face fell as he leaned forward onto their lunch table in defeat. “Dad kinda ate him.”  
“ _What_?!” Shinji exclaimed, feeling his heart stop for a moment. First his uncle, now Dustin? This was too much. “Why?!”  
“I guess I ate the last frozen pizza, he was hungry, Dustin was just there… It was either that or cereal. And he can’t have cereal for dinner. Shinji, don’t judge him!”  
_Hard not to,_ Shinji thought, his mouth still hanging open at the horror of this story.  
Hiroki cleared his throat. “So, we just pull out lots out of a hat or something to decide who gets whom?” he asked, eager to move on from the topic of death.

Shinji ended up getting Yutaka, which was perfect. He was going to get him a real gift anyway, but for the sake of Secret Santa he got an extra one that fit within the budget. It was a book of jokes, and he slipped in a note teasingly saying this was the chance for Yutaka to get some actual _good_ material. Yutaka laughed when he opened it, commenting that whoever had gifted this to him clearly had no taste.  
Shinji opened up a mix-tape which was all Rock ‘n Roll, so it didn’t exactly take a genius to guess that Shuya probably made this with the help of someone in the music club.  
“How romantic,” Shinji winked to him. Shuya grinned back.  
“Feel free to ignore the ones about sex,” he teased.  
“Oh, believe me, I won’t,” Shinji joked back.

Keita was hyped to open up an indie fighting game for his game console. It had a note mentioning that it was bought used, and that the buyer didn’t go over the price. With such an awkward note, Shinji figured the giver was probably Hiroki. Not that it mattered.  
“Sweet! We gotta play right away!” Keita insisted. No one really objected to this. Shinji was up for some winning, as always.  
“I need to digest this chicken first. Not even my hands can move right now,” Yutaka joked, resting against the armrest of the sofa.  
“Sounds like an easy win. Let’s play now,” Keita kicked him with his foot, causing Yutaka to whine.  
“No kicking. Even kicking is too much,” he complained, closing his eyes.  
“Yeah, I’m too tired too. I need some sugar before I can crush you,” Shuya chuckled, unwrapping a chocolate Santa and ripping of the head to share with Yoshitoki.  
  
“I’ll play with you, Keita,” Shinji said reflexively. “Even without hands, I could probably kick your ass.”  
“Oh, damn. We’ll see about that,” Keita grinned, clearly pleased someone was going along with him. “Join me in my bedroom!”  
That was a phrase Shinji usually heard from hot girls, or from Yutaka that one time in a dream, but still, he got up from his seat and followed Keita.  
“You don’t mind leaving the rest of them? They’re guests and all.”  
“Nah, I’m sure they know how to chill and eat snacks without a host. Besides, the others are fun and stuff, but it’s nice spending some one on one time with my BFF too,” Keita replied, sticking the new game into the console.  
Shinji could point out that Yutaka was his best friend, but heck, it was almost Christmas. Not saying anything could be his gift to Keita.

“You think they had fun today too? Like, some of them are kinda hard to read sometimes. Not like you and Yutaka, I always know what you guys are thinking. But you know what I mean,” Keita talked absentmindedly as they started the fighting game up. “I dunno if they like the games and stuff I come up with.”  
Shinji glanced at him. He hadn’t considered that Keita sometimes thought about what everyone else thought about his antics; he figured that he either didn’t realize some of it was a little weird, or he just didn’t care.  
“What, like Secret Santa? That’s not a weird game or anything, man. It’s nice. Everyone loves getting gifts,” he responded, his eyes moving back to the screen.  
“I guess you’re right. Nobu looked pretty happy when he saw I got him a block of cheese,” Keita nodded. Shinji thought he maybe confused happy with perplexed.  
“Who wouldn’t be?” he said instead, unable not to smile. “Although Yutaka did say it was a pretty cheesy gift.”  
“Yutaka’s the best. Well, second best,” Keita laughed. Shinji agreed. The best being himself, of course.  
  
A couple of rounds into the games, it became obvious Shinji was going to be the victor, as per usual. He found it a little weird how Keita could spend so much time playing video games, yet still was always unable to beat him. He chucked it up to part of his natural talent.  
“You got the moves, Shinji! All the cool ones,” Keita grinned, giving him a thumbs up when the victory was secured.  
Shinji smiled back at him, patting his shoulder lightly in return.  
“You know… Your move aren’t too bad either, man,” he said seriously.  
Of course it was hard to tell for sure with these kind of things, but Shinji felt certain their odd friendship would continue to be something pretty special for a long time. 


End file.
